The present disclosure relates to peripheral disk drive devices, logical disk drives, mass storage class devices, and techniques for connecting to an external host device.
In typical operation, a peripheral device such as a peripheral disk drive, a logical disk drive, a mass storage class device, or another removable or portable storage device is periodically connected to an external host (i.e., by plugging into a desktop or laptop computer using a USB cable or a FireWire cable) to transfer data between the peripheral device and the external host device. The time required to establish communications is called a “mount time,” and the time required to end the communications is called a “dismount time.” To ensure proper continuing operation of the peripheral device, proper mount and dismount procedures should be observed. For example, removing the physical connection (USB or FireWire cable) between the external host device and the peripheral device before completing the dismount procedure can lead to data loss or corruption of data.
The time it takes to mount or dismount the peripheral device from the external host device can be irritatingly long for many users. Particularly, a mass storage class device such as a handheld, portable music player device requires time to switch from a playback mode of operation into a storage mode of operation. For example, an MP3 player may have a logical storage device (flash memory) or a disk drive device for storing music files. The flash memory typically has a “virtual” spin-up time, and the disk drive has a “physical” disk spin-up time for accessing stored files. When the MP3 player is connected to the external host device, the MP3 player switches from a mode for playing music files into a mode for reading/writing to and from the storage device (flash memory or disk drive). Among other things, the time needed to switch between the two modes includes spin-up time of the storage device. Conversely, when the MP3 player is disconnected from the external host device, the MP3 player switches from the mode for reading/writing to and from the storage device into the mode for playing music files, which includes time to stop and clear the storage device.